made of grapes: if she had been blefs'd, fhe would never have loved the Moor: Blefs'd pudding! Didft thou not fee her paddle with the palm of his hand? didft not mark that? ROD. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. IAGO. Lechery, by this hand; an index, and obfcure prologue to the hiftory of luft and foul thoughts. They met fo near with their lips, that their breaths embraced together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! when thefe mutualities fo marthal the way, hard at hand comes the mafter and main exercife, the incorporate conclufion: Pifh!-But, fir, be you ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for the command, I'll lay't upon you: Caffio knows you not; -I'li not be far from you: Do you find fome occafion to anger Caffio, either by speaking too loud, or tainting his difcipline; or from what other courfe" you pleafe, which the time fhall more favourably minifter. 8 ROD. Well. IAGO. Sir, he is rafh, and very fudden in choler;' and, haply, with his truncheon may strike at you: Provoke him, that he may: for, even out of that, will I cause thefe of Cyprus to mutiny; whofe 7 - an index, and obfcure prologue &c.] That indexes were formerly prefixed to books, appears from a paffage in Troilus and Creffida. See p. 225, n. 9, of this volume, and Vol. XI. p. 269, n. z. MALONE. 8 -tainting] Throwing a flur upon his discipline. So, in Troilus and Crefida: JOHNSON. "In taint of our beft man." STEEVENS. 91 2 other courfe-] The first quarto reads-caufe. STEEVENS. fudden in choler;] Sudden, is precipitately violent. JOHNSON. qualification fhall come into no true taste again,3 but by the difplanting of Caffio. So fhall you have a shorter journey to your defires, by the means I fhall then have to prefer them; and the impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our profperity. ROD. I will do this, if I can bring it to any opportunity.s IAGO. I warrant thee. Meet me Meet me by and by at the citadel: I muft fetch his neceffaries afhore. Farewell. ROD. Adieu. [Exit. IAGO. That Caffio loves her, I do well believe it; And, I dare think, he'll prove to Desdemona So, Malcolm, defcribing Macbeth: 3 whofe qualification shall come &c.] Whose refentment fhall not be fo qualified or tempered, as to be well tafted, as not to retain fome bitterness. The phrafe is harsh, at least to our ears. JOHNSON. Perhaps qualification means fitness to preferve good order, or the regularity of military difcipline. STEEVENS. no true tafte So the folio. reads-no true truft. MALONE. The quarto, 1622, 4 to prefer them;] i. e. to advance them. So, in A MidSummer-Night's Dream: "The fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd." MALONE. See Vol. XII. p. 395, n. 3. STEEVENS. 5 if I can bring it to any opportunity.] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-if you can bring it, &c. MALONE. But partly led to diet my revenge, For that I do fufpect the lufty Moor Hath leap'd into my feat: the thought whereof That judgement cannot cure. Which thing to do,- 7 like a poisonous mineral,] This is philofophical. Mineral poifons kill by corrofion. JOHNSON. 8 Till I am even with him,] Thus the quarto, 1622; the firft folio reads: Till I am even'd with him. i. c. Till I am on a level with him by retaliation. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, Second Part: "The stately walls he rear'd, levell'd, and even'd." Again, in Tancred and Gifmund, 1592: "For now the walls are even'd with the plain." Again, in Stanyburt's tranflation of the firft book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582:-" numerum cum navibus æquat—.” 66 with the ships the number is even'd." STEEVENS. Which thing to do,— If this poor trafh of Venice, whom I trash For bis quick hunting, ftand the putting on,] The quarto, 1622, has-crub, the folio reads-trace, an apparent corruption oftrash; for as to the idea of crushing a dog, to prevent him from quick bunting, it is too ridiculous to be defended. To traf, is ftill a hunter's phrafe, and fignifies (See Vol. III. p. 16, n. 9,) to faften a weight on the neck of a dog, when his fpeed is fuperior to that of his companions. Thus, fays Catarach, in The Bonduca of Beaumont and Fletcher, (the quotation was the late Mr. T. Warton's, though misunderstood by him as to its appropriate meaning): I fled too, "But not fo faft; your jewel had been loft then, Young Hengo there: he trafb'd me, Nennius,-." i. e. he was the clog that reftrained my activity. This fenfe of the word-trafb has been fo repeatedly confirmed 2 I'll have our Michael Caffio on the hip; * Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me, And practifing upon his peace and quiet [Exit. to me by those whom I cannot suspect of wanting information relative to their most favourite purfuits, that I do not hesitate to throw off the load of unfatisfactory notes with which the paffage before us has hitherto been oppreffed. Trab, in the first inftance, (though Dr. Warburton would change it into-brach,) may be used to fignify a worthlefs hound, as the fame term is afterwards employed to defcribe a worthless female: "Gentlemen all, I do fufpect this trash." It is fcarce neceffary to fupport the prefent jingle on the wordtrash, by examples, it is so much in our author's manner, although his worst. Stand the putting on, may mean-does not ftart too foon after Defdemona, and fo deftroy my fcheme by injudicious precipitation. But I rather think, thefe words have reference to the enterprize of provoking Caffio, and will then imply,—if he has courage enough for the attempt to which I have juft incited, or put him on. ample of the latter phrase, see p. 466, n. 4. STEEVENS. For an ex 2 I'll have our Michael Caffio on the hip;] A phrase from the art of wreftling. JOHNSON. 3in the rank garb,] Thus the quarto, and, I think, rightly. Rank garb, I believe, means, grafsly, i. e. without mincing the So, in Marston's Dutch Courtefan, 1604: matter. “Whither, in the rank name of madness, whither ?” STEEVENS. The folio reads—in the right garb. Rank, perhaps, means not only grof, but lafcivious. So, in The Merchant of Venice : the ewes, being rank, "In end of autumn," &c. MALONE. 4 Knavery's plain face is never feen,] An honeft man acts upon a plan, and forecafts his defigns; but a knave depends upon temporary and local opportunities, and never knows his own purpose, but at the time of execution. JOHNSON. SCENE II. A Street. Enter a Herald, with a proclamation: people following. HER. It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet, every man put himfelf into triumph;+ fome to dance, fome to make bonfires, each man to what sport and revels his addiction' leads him; for, befides these beneficial news, it is the celebration of his nuptials: So much was his pleasure fhould be proclaimed. All offices are open; and there is full liberty of feafting, from this prefent hour of five, till the bell hath told eleven. Heaven blefs the ifle of Cyprus, and our noble general, Othello! [Exeunt. 3 mere perdition-] Mere in this place fignifies entire. So, in Hamlet: put himself into triumph;] This whimsical phrafeology occurs again in Pericles, Prince of Tyre: 5 "So puts himself into the fhipman's toil." STEEVENS. 6 All offices are open;] i. e. all rooms, or places, in the caftle, at which refreshments are prepared, or ferved out. So, in Macbeth: "Sent forth great largefs to your offices." See Vol. VII. p. 401, n. 8. STEEVENS. 7 "—of feafting,] Thefe words are not in the original quarto, 1622. MALONE. |